


Cut Short

by unorigelnal (jayburding)



Series: The Hobbit Dæmon AU [2]
Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemon, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-04
Updated: 2013-01-04
Packaged: 2017-11-23 16:38:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/624294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayburding/pseuds/unorigelnal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Hobbit dæmon AU, as asked for over <a href="http://hobbit-kink.livejournal.com/702.html?thread=833470#t833470">here</a> at the kinkmeme.</p><p>Kili's dæmon Hannar’s tendency to stand her ground backfires in rather permanent fashion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cut Short

Hannar never had learned to be smart in a fight. The wildcat stood her ground where more prudent dæmons would have run, and it got her in trouble more often than not, as it had this time, facing down a warg and his rider while Fili and Kili fought their way through the orc swarm to reach her. Hannar was fierce, but the warg outweighed her twenty times over.

Sviur came flying to the rescue, Eikinskjaldi right behind her in a somewhat more literal fashion. The warg and his master were dead before even fleet footed Andvari had caught them up, but not without consequences for the dæmon wedged in the warg’s mouth. It was an ignoble end to what should have been a resounding victory.

“You look like Mama,” Sviur said when they were settled back at camp, grooming the abbreviated end of Hannar’s tail. The image of quick tempered Haugspori, the cat that never got over his lack of tail, was almost enough to make the wildcat giggle between her winces as she suffer her sibling’s grooming.

“Just because you have enough tail for both of us,” Hannar groused, nipping at Sviur’s long tail as it swept past her nose. “Compensating.”

“Says you, stubby.”

“Defensive much, Sviur?”

The genet looked up from her grooming, glaring at her sib, the point of her pink tongue poking out between her teeth. “You can groom yourself if you’re gonna be snippy.”

“You try not being snippy when you’re missing half your tail,” the bobcat growled.

“ I’ve never had to. I keep a sharp eye on my tail.”

Hannar hissed and snapped at her, driving Sviur back a step or two. “Go play your superior sibling game elsewhere, or I’ll use your damned tail to sharpen my teeth.”

Sviur glared at Hannar, a withering expression she’d learned from Haugspori. “If you think my superiority is a game, little sister, then you can get yourself out of the warg’s mouth next time.”

Sviur stalked off without another word, climbing up to Fili’s shoulder and curling up with her tail tucked away. The scar that near cleaved her in two just above the hindquarters was clear in the flicker light of the fire, pale against the silver of her fur.

The first touches of guilt crept into Hannar, but the remains of her tail ached in retaliation and reinforced her poor mood. She padded over to Kili, who was well on his way to falling asleep on his brother now that his stitches were done, and curled up in his lap. Her tail would not reach to cover her nose anymore, no matter how tight she curled.

“Mind his stitches,” Sviur murmured, as Kili rested barely a breath away from her.

“I know that,” Hannar growled. “Mind yourself, not me.”

“I do both, Hannar. Always have.”

Fili appeared to pay them little mind, preoccupied with Kili, but they both knew he was listening. Eikinskjaldi watched them from across the fire, her hard edged face fixed in a permanent frown.

“I never asked you to mind me,” Hannar grumbled into her soft paws, since her tail would no longer reach. “No one did.”

“We did,” Sviur said from her perch, and tucked her head against Fili’s neck where she could hear his pulse as strong as her own. “It’s our job to mind you.”

“No one asked you,” Hannar said, as if the repetition would make Sviur change her mind.

“That’s what sibs do, kit,” Mótsognir rumbled from her place by the fire, Aurvang sound asleep and curled into a loose loop on her back. “It’s a rare dwarf that doesn’t have a sib or a sworn brother to watch their back for those times they’ve only got eyes for what’s ahead of them.”

“That’s what we’re for,” Hannar said.

“Not if you’re looking in the same direction,” Eikinskjaldi said, soft as smoke, levelling one golden eye at Hannar, “and you never take your eye off the blade at your neck long enough to mind the knife in your back.”

“No one ever gets that far.” Hannar meant to scoff, but under Eikinskjaldi’s unflinching gaze it was all she could do not to stutter.

“And why do you think that is?” Sviur asked. Fili reached up to curl a hand around his dæmon and turned to whisper something to her that not even Hannar was close enough to hear. Sviur quieted as Fili rearranged Kili so he was no longer being used as a pillow, and stretched out to curl around Fili’s neck as he also settled back.

Hannar meant to retort again, but Kili moved and laid a heavy hand on her back, a clear signal to be quiet. She settled down again, pointedly ignoring Sviur though she knew the genet was still watching her, and purred quietly as Kili relaxed back into true sleep again. The wildcat drifted off to the shuffle of bodies around her, and the soft voices of Mótsognir and Eikinskjaldi talking by the fire.

She woke later to an early morning quiet, broken only Ginnar’s rapid chatter, little more than a dim hum beyond the fire. It was warmer, despite the early hour and the settling frost beyond the radius of the fire.

“Go back to sleep,” said a soft voice in her ear. “It’s a while til dawn.”

She wanted to tell Sviur to leave her alone, but she was warm and the tail that curled before her nose was strangely comforting even if it wasn’t her own. Hannar snuggled back down against her sib and resisted the urge to purr.

“I still don’t need you to mind me,” she muttered.

“It’s too early to argue. I’ll be mad at you again later. Now shut up and go to sleep,” Sviur grumbled.

“Love you too,” Hannar said, and did just that.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who are interested, I received the most epic of all fanart for The Need for Change [here](http://thejerseydeviledoodleblog.tumblr.com/post/38920997109/home-is-behind-the-world-ahead-based-off-of-this) and [here](http://thejerseydeviledoodleblog.tumblr.com/post/38956683373/oh-hay). Go check them out!


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